Category Archives: Film
The Analog-to-Digital Journey of Film
Two of this week’s milestones in the history of technology reflect the analog-to-digital transformation of film making and distribution. On December 28, 1895, the first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held by the Lumière brothers … Continue reading
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Edison’s First Movie Projector: A Phonograph for Pictures
Today in 1888, Thomas Edison filed a patent for the first movie projector, the “Optical Phonograph,” which projected images just 1/32-inch across. Steven Lubar in InfoCulture: “Thomas Edison was thinking about the phonograph when he decided to invent a moving picture machine. … Continue reading
Earliest Surviving Motion Picture
Today in 1888, Louis Le Prince shot Roundhay Garden Scene, the earliest surviving motion picture. It features Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley and Harriet Hartley walking around in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the home of Joseph and Sarah … Continue reading
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Sound on Film Demonstrated for the First Time
Today in 1922, Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film. In the first sounds ever publicly heard from a composite image-and-audio film, Helena Tykociner, the inventor’s wife, spoke the … Continue reading
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The Best and Worst of Moving Pictures
One hundred and twenty years ago today (May 9, 1893), Thomas Edison presented the Kinetoscope, the first film-viewing device, at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. The first film publicly shown on the system was Blacksmith Scene, the earliest known example of actors … Continue reading
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First Showing of Vitascope
Today in 1896, the Vitascope was introduced to the public for the first time at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City. In They Made America, Harold Evans describes the scene that day: “… an enraptured elite audience lapped up short … Continue reading
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First 3-D Movie in Color from a Major Studio
60 years ago today, Warner Bros.’s House of Wax premiered nationwide. The film was the first 3-D color feature from a major American studio, and premiered just two days after Columbia Pictures’s Man in the Dark, the first 3-D feature released by … Continue reading
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First 3-D Movie from a Major Studio
60 years ago today, Columbia Pictures premiered the first 3-D movie produced and released by a major studio, Man in the Dark, at the Globe Theater in New York City. The unexpected success of the previous year’s Bwana Devil in 3-D sparked a stampede … Continue reading
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Movies: First Screening
Today in 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumières held their first private screening of projected motion pictures. Who’s Who in Victorian Cinema: “The Cinématographe (a name used earlier by experimenter Bouly) gave its first public presentation in Paris, to the Société d’Encouragement … Continue reading
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First Feature-Length 3-D Film in Color
60 years ago today, Bwana Devil opened in New York. The film was advertised as the “the world’s first feature length motion picture in natural vision 3 dimension: The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!”
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